CoPilot Flight Planning

January 1st, 2010

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CoPilot is a flight planning program for general aviation. It performs the calculations that you would normally perform with a ruler, a protractor and an E6B calculator. It performs time, distance, heading, fuel and weight & balance calculations.

CoPilot is a software application program for the iPhone that performs general aviation flight planning calculations — detailed climb, cruise, fuel and weight & balance calculations. CoPilot stores the information for trips so that you can refer back to previous trips (or modify them for new trips).
CoPilot is based on the concept of a flight. A flight consists of three components – a route, a weight and balance calculation, and a flight plan.
The flight route consists of a number of legs, from takeoff through a number of intermediate waypoints, to landing. A number of fights can be combined into one trip. For example, a weekend trip may consist of a flight to a holiday destination on Saturday and a return trip on Sunday. Totals (distance, time, etc.) are calculated and displayed for each leg, flight and trip.
CoPilot performs very detailed flight calculations, adjusting for wind, pressure, temperature etc. Climb information (climb time, climb distance, climb fuel, etc.) is calculated using the detailed climb information provided for the aircraft.
The ramp, takeoff, landing, and zero-fuel weight & balance are calculated and plotted for each flight.
A flight plan form is prepared with all of the information that you will require when you call the Flight Service Station (FSS). Canadian, American, and ICAO formats are currently supported.
An optional fourth flight component is a navigation component. This component is only available on devices with GPS functionality. A moving map (waypoints only) or an HSI (Horizontal Situation Indicator) is displayed for each leg of the flight.
CoPilot can be customized to use any set of units. You can freely switch back and forth between the various units.
Before planning a flight, you will need to enter some information regarding the aircraft to be used. The minimum information that is required is an aircraft ident and a cruise speed. More information is required, however, if you want CoPilot to calculate climb times, fuel burn, weight & balance etc. If you have multiple aircraft defined, you can quickly compare the trip totals when using one aircraft versus another. There is an online library of user submitted aircraft profiles. Users can search this library for aircraft to install.
Waypoint information does NOT have to be manually entered. Whenever you enter a waypoint for a leg of a flight, an online database is consulted to get the details of the waypoint. The selected waypoint (and all of the other waypoints in the surrounding area) is downloaded to your device. Although this initial planning will require an internet connect in order to consult the waypoint server, subsequent planning in the same area can be done offline because CoPilot has downloaded all of the waypoints in the area. The waypoint database is completely free and covers the entire world.
Using CoPilot, you can plan a complete trip, with detailed flight times, required headings, distances, weight & balance, etc., in only a few minutes. Changes can be incorporated in only a few seconds.